Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor (Wash Post)

[Editor’s note: The famous Xian warriors are stationed at National Geographic’s Explorer’s Hall in Washington, DC, thru March 31, 2010, open daily with late Wednesdays. Entrance fee applies, museum has details.]

An army for the afterlifeBy Michael O’Sullivan. Friday, November 20, 2009

Buried for more than 2,000 years until their accidental discovery by Chinese farmers in 1974, the world-famous terra cotta warriors — a life-size militia of about 7,000 clay figures created to protect China’s first emperor in the afterlife — have arrived in Washington. Well, 15 of the 1,000 or so that have been unearthed, along with more than 100 related artifacts from the grave site of Qin Shihuangdi (259-210 B.C.) in Shaanxi province.

On view through March 31 at the National Geographic Museum, the last stop on a four-city U.S. tour, “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor” is the first time this many of the figures have traveled to the States. What’s more, according to museum director Susan Norton, museum-goers here will be able to get within a few feet of the warriors, far closer than even at the original archeological site, where visitors look down on the burial pits from a distance.

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